Pakistan Cricket Board have announced a combined Test and T20I squad for their tour to England. Many players who weren’t in the squad last time around due to various reasons have made their respective comebacks. The selections this time have been rather surprising as the Pakistani fans from all around the world seems to have liked this combined squad.
Azhar Ali and Babar Azam have been retained as the Test and T20I captain respectively. Sarfraz Ahmed,the former Pakistan captain across all formats has managed to make a comeback,so has the Pakistan pacer Sohail Khan. Sohail Khan last played a Test in 2016 when he took two Five wicket hauls against England. As reported earlier M.Amir and Harris Sohail had withdrawn their names from the squad due to family and personal issues. This has forced the selectors to recall Fawad Alam,Who has been one of Pak’s best domestic player in the last few years. Pakistan fans across the globe wanted Alam in the Pakistan squad and Harris Sohail backing out from the squad has inevitably lead to that. Haider Ali, Pakistan’s Under 19 star batsman has been selected in the squad for the first time and will be looking forward to his possible international debut. Sindh’s Kashif Bhatti is the other uncapped player In the side.
Pakistan are all set to tour England in August-September this year and their squad has a combination of young guns such as Naseem Shah and Haider Ali as well as the experienced players such as M.Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Sarfraz Ahmed. It is yet to be seen if they can beat the mighty England this time around.
Squad: Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (captain), Babar Azam (Test vice-captain and T20I captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan, and Yasir Shah.